Coffee May Lower Women's Risk of Depression

Women who had two to three cups of coffee a day had about a 15% lower risk of developing depression during a 10-year period than women who had only one cup of coffee or less per week. Consuming four or more cups a day reduced the risk of depression even more, by 20%.

For 10 years, researchers studied 50,739 U.S. women drinking caffeinated beverages. About 66 percent of the women in the study were more than 60 years old, and none of the women showed signs of depression at the beginning of the study.

Women in the study consumed the same amount of coffee per day during the entire test period, but different groups in the test consumed different amounts. Researchers monitored the onset of depression for the different groups for the duration of the study.

The new study is just the latest to suggest coffee consumption has health benefits. Earlier work has found an association between drinking coffee and a reduced risk of breast cancer, prostate cancer and stroke.

"Taken together, these results reassure coffee drinkers that there seem to exist no glaringly deleterious health consequences to coffee consumption," Dr. Seth Berkowitz, wrote in an editor's note accompanying the new study.

Because the study only shows a correlation between coffee and the risk of depression, it's too soon for doctors to recommend coffee consumption to patients, Berkowitz said.



The study is published in the Sept. 26 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.